5′ 5″ bantamweight Ellen Simwaka, born on June 6, 1997, in Malawi. She grew up with her grandparents and mother in Chitipa District—-a small township until the age of 11 when she went to live with her father and stepmother in Lilongwe, as they could offer her a better life and education.
As a teenager, Ellen played soccer as a sport. Her father was a soccer player and in that sport he fully supported her.
When Ellen was just 14 years old her father passed away. At that time she moved with her uncle.
Ellen continued to play soccer, but then one day through a group of friends, she was invited to the Kamuzu Institute for Sports where she saw some young athletes boxing. Ellen had put on some weight as a teenager and her friends encouraged her to try boxing to lose some weight.
She started training at the Kamuzu Institute for Sports with Jobson Adams and Kassim Makwinja, where they saw huge potential in her and within a month of starting training she had her first amateur fight.
She went on to have 30 amateur fights with only 2 losses. As an amateur boxer, she went to the Africa Youth Games in Botswana where she earned a silver medal.
It got to the stage where no amateur boxers wanted to fight her anymore in Malawi and that’s when she decided to turn professional in 2016 when she won her first fight by TKO. Since then she has gone on to have 7 wins, 4 losses and 2 draws.
Ellen decided to move to South Africa to further her professional career in boxing in August 2017 as Malawi has limited resources for training and promoters.
The highlight of Ellen, “The Tigress” career has been winning the WBF International Bantamweight title in 2018 against Simangele Hadebe.
WBAN published a July 2, 2018 press release from the WBF, which stated, “After losing a decision to South African rival Simangele “Smash” Hadebe last September, and drawing in the rematch only five weeks ago, Ellen Simwaka from Malawi finally came out on top in their third encounter on Saturday night, June 30. At the Turfontein Race Cource in Johannesburg, with the vacant World Boxing Federation (WBF) Women’s International Bantamweight title on the line, it was obvious that these boxers know each other well, making it a nip-and-tuck battle in the first six rounds. But, fighting on her opponents home-turf, Simwaka impressively took matters out of the judges hands in round seven, scoring a technical knockout to win her first professional championship less than two years after making her debut.”
The biggest disappointment in her boxing career to date has been the missed opportunity to be the first African female boxer to win the Commonwealth belt in Scotland in November 2018 against Kristen Fraser. Ellen retired in the 5th round due to massive frustration around refereeing decisions. In hindsight, she hugely regrets her decision and according to Ellen, she has repeatedly been asking for a rematch which to date they will not give her.
There are challenges being a Malawian national fighting from South Africa, but Ellen now has her sights firmly set on the WBO, IBF and WBC Belts and is stronger, fitter and more determined than ever before.
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